The Devil, Probably

Synopsis

In order to be technically free of the mortal sin of suicide, a young man who has given up on the world pays a drug-addict to shoot him. Charles (Antoine Monnier), who is a student, has tried political action and investigated the claims of religion but ultimately finds nothing which will change the overwhelming bleakness he feels surrounded by. In this austere movie by director Robert Bresson, the power of the storytelling comes from the lucidity of the imagery captured on film, rather than in the acting.

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Nihilism as logical endpoint but spiritual failing, a product of society's turn to capitalism-as-religion that damns its denizens. Richard Hell calls it the most punk movie ever, but a soundtrack of mechanized noise practically skips the reactionary aesthetic of punk for its most avant-garde successors.

I don't think Bresson is ever asking us to question whether we agree with Charles' logic, but he just wants us to watch him questioning it. We may grow weary of the world and the mass mechanisms set in place to keep us here, but until we're able to comprehend the sublime poetry of a bus stopping, opening its door, and then starting again, we're all doomed to oblivion. Despite an apparent commitment to nihilistic oppression and blowing the whistle on corporate cynicism, I think The Devil, Probably is an affirmative and joyful film which does subtly intuit "the incomprehensible" through its sound, images, rhythms. I think the irony at the centre of a lot of (mainly late) Bresson is that the characters in the films would probably be "saved" if they were able to see and experience the films they were starring in. But that's not possible.

Bresson made The Devil, Probably at 76 years old. Unbelievable. Its raw portrayal of frustrated youth still rings quite true today, especially given the political subject matter dealt with in the film. When all is lost, how can we be free? For our protagonist, Charles, suicide seems to be the only logical answer; but I’m pretty certain Bresson feels differently. I do think he ultimately agrees with the leftist ideals put forth by these characters at the root of it, but Bresson himself isn’t necessarily as radical as they are, nor as lazy. Maybe at one point in his life Bresson was as disillusioned with society as Charles; but with so many years behind him here, he can look back…

" The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come,…

"Do you know how civilizations end? It's when stupidity is accelerated."

"...The engineers and technicians are handling that problem."

-"What's incredible is that to reassure people you simply have to deny the facts." -"What facts? This is the supernatural. Nothing is clear."

-"And now you belong to left-wing groups?" -"Yes. Or rather, no."

Okay, I'll stop with the quotes because I could literally transcribe this script all day, I can't think of many other films that reflect my essential worldview as closely as this one, at least in part. This film is me, basically (probably). Or at least the curmudgeonly, fogeyish side of me that tells record store clerks to please…

Bresson does a great job of building up a sense of hopelessness and apocalyptic degradation which I would usually reject out of hand, but there's only a certain amount of time I can follow him down that road. Call it personal bias but there's a lot about Charles's character that's so alien to me (his nostalgia for a time long gone, his apathy towards friends and relationships, his complete conviction in his own intelligence) that I find it very hard to sympathize, never mind support, his worldview.

Bresson made The Devil, Probably at 76 years old. Unbelievable. Its raw portrayal of frustrated youth still rings quite true today, especially given the political subject matter dealt with in the film. When all is lost, how can we be free? For our protagonist, Charles, suicide seems to be the only logical answer; but I’m pretty certain Bresson feels differently. I do think he ultimately agrees with the leftist ideals put forth by these characters at the root of it, but Bresson himself isn’t necessarily as radical as they are, nor as lazy. Maybe at one point in his life Bresson was as disillusioned with society as Charles; but with so many years behind him here, he can look back…

That iconic scene in Blow-Up where The Yardbirds play a set to disaffected and dispassionate youths have no reaction until the band starts destroying their gear and then they engage with the frenzy of the situation? Those few minutes are stretched out into an entire film in The Devil, Probably, which focuses on staid youngsters who are upset at the world, global problems and intimacy problems, but choose to do nothing about it other than wallow in the misery of knowing something should be done but feeling unable to do anything. In regards to my Blow-Up allusion, I suppose a guitar smash is the same as a frightening and real documentary footage of a seal being clubbed.

It’s not surprising that Fassbinder admired this movie. I could feel the same atmosphere I found watching In a Year With 13 Moons, which came out the following year: the videos projected in the environmental association, in particular, reminded me of the slaughterhouse scene from the Fassbinder film. While Bresson’s movie has a more stoic and rigorous tone, Fassbinder’s is ominous and more explicitly angry.

Iace the world handed to them, a Garden of Eden trashed daily by human indifference and consumption. The story focuses on one of the four, Charles, who can't see the value of his existence or departure from this world. It's a movie I want to tie to Malle's Le feu follet; of course I find Bresson's approach much more affecting. It's quintessential Bresson with the stylistic focus on bodies as vessels, posed in classical arrangements to suggest spiritual suffering in the moment. The camera avoids faces at times, focusing on simple, carefully directed hand and body movements. There's a search for spirituality in it all, as great as Bergman's questing. I like that Bresson worked the environment into his equation as well; it's a nice touch. While the story heads inexorably to its nihilistic conclusion, the experience is somehow enriching.